The invention relates to a harvesting system having a self-propelled harvesting machine comprising multiple working units for processing crop picked up from a field, a driver assistance system for sensor-supported control of the working units, the driver assistance system comprising a memory for storing data and a computing unit for processing the data and an environmental sensor system for detecting environmental information that influences a harvesting process and has a spatial area of applicability located in an environment of the harvesting machine.
Self-propelled harvesting machines such as combine harvesters, forage harvesters, or the like are assigned a plurality of machine parameters, which must be adjusted during the harvesting process. By adjusting these machine parameters, an at least partially autonomous adjustment and optimization of the relevant harvesting-process parameters can be achieved.
A self-propelled harvesting machine designed as a combine harvester is used for mowing and for threshing grain. Assigned to the harvesting machine are a number of working units, such as a header, a threshing unit, a separation system, a cleaning system, and a spreader system. The threshing unit obtains grain from the crop picked up by the combine harvester by the header, which grain, after threshing, separation, and subsequent cleaning, is fed to a grain tank. The chaff and the straw, for example, remain as further components of the crop and are either spread onto the field or, in the case of straw, can be set down as swath, e.g., to be subsequently picked up by a baler. Here and in the following, the term “crop” is intended to mean the entirety of the crop stream picked up by the threshing unit, i.e., including the grains that have not yet been obtained as grain from the crop, the grains that may remain in the crop stream as a loss and that may be deposited with the straw.
In the threshing unit, the grain is rubbed, i.e., threshed, out of the straw by a processing, which is rolling, in principle, and is separated from the remaining crop stream, so that it can be fed directly to the cleaning system. The remaining crop stream is then fed to the separation area in which the remaining grain is separated from the crop stream, e.g., by a straw-walker system and is then likewise fed to the cleaning system.
DE 10 2009 009 767 A1 discloses a harvesting system comprising a combine harvester having a driver assistance system that measures different harvesting-process parameters on the combine harvester and checks them to determine whether they pass into a critical value range or exceed or undershoot critical limit values. If this situation occurs, the driver assistance system interactively communicates with the driver by proposing to the driver measures to take to optimize the control of the threshing unit that are intended for moving out of the critical value range. In this case, assigned to the driver assistance system is a harvesting-process sensor system comprising a plurality of harvesting-process sensors, with which different harvesting-process parameters resulting from the harvesting process can be determined. The harvesting-process parameters provide information about the on-going harvesting process and form the basis for the aforementioned optimization.
A disadvantage of the aforementioned harvesting machine comprising a harvesting-process sensor system, which determines different harvesting-process parameters, is the fact that the adjustment of a set harvesting-process state is always associated with a certain start-up process until the target harvesting-process state is reached. This is due, primarily, to the fact that the harvesting-process parameters used as the basis for the optimization are themselves dependent upon the harvesting process.
Harvesting machines that access environmental sensor signals for the purpose of adjusting machine parameters are also known. One example of this is the predictive, sensor-based determination of properties of the field crop using environmental sensors, which can be located on the harvesting machine (DE 10 2011 085 380 A1). One example of this is the predictive, sensor-based determination of properties of the field crop by means of environmental sensors, which are located on an aircraft (DE 10 2010 038 661 A1).
A disadvantage of the known harvesting systems comprising environmental sensors is that the incorporation of the resultant sensor signals into the control of the working units is not very systematic. A systematic improvement of the aforementioned start-up behavior therefore cannot be achieved.